Yo! Sushi

Blue Plate Monday's are like a gift from the God's for us here in London. Each dish that is on a blue colored plate is £2.50 and we ball out. Typically I get the salmon avocado hand roll, salmon fire-cracker rice and then I like to switch it up with either another roll or chicken katsu. And I can't forget about the miso soup that let's you get unlimited refills.
What's cool about this place is that they have about a hundred plates of Asian style food that is rotating on a conveyor belt for you to just pick and choose which plate you want. If you don't see it on there, all you have to do is press the button on your table and a waiter comes over to you to take your order. The future is here you guys and it's at Yo! Sushi.
My parents tell me not to spend any more money on food (so sad) but I'm basically saaaaaving money by going to Yo! Sushi for Blue Plate Monday. It's our spot and the employees know us there. So...sorry mom and dad but I can't stop now!

Paris, France

As I write this post I am listening to Edith Piaff and longing to watch La Vie En Rose even though I already have Fifty Shades of Grey all loaded and ready to watch (too tired to watch an emotional movie). Anyways, Paris to me was magical. Yes, it was covered in smog but that didn't stop it from being one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. 

Only being in Paris for two days and one night, we were basically the biggest tourists to ever exist. And after two 9 hour bus rides, a two hour ferry ride and 3 different kinds of border control stops, we were also the most tired tourists to ever exist.

We hit it all: the Lock Bridge (and of course we all locked our locks on there. [how many times can I say lock in one sentence]), the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre…you name it, we saw it. 

We stayed at St. Christopher's Inn (my very first hostel experience!) and loved it so much that we are staying there while we are in Berlin, Germany next weekend. They served us breakfast of ham and cheese on baguettes, cereal and canned fruit. While that doesn't seem too appetizing, the baguettes were  something I am still craving over a week later. This hostel was somewhere you could stay at drinking all night, but of course we only started there. We then went to the Social Club where it had "European" written all over it. Every song sounded the same and there were no lyrics or ~*beat drops*~. But, we still had a great time.

I think what really made me fall in love with Paris was, of course, the Eiffel Tower. Because it sure as hell wasn't the customer service let me tell ya…rude. But, when I saw the Eiffel Tower I literally couldn't believe my eyes. And at night? Unreal. We selfie-sticked HARD and I think you can tell by the pictures how much we were enjoying ourselves.

French onion soup, duck, salmon salad and creme brûlée…I'm still dreaming of France's food as I eat my last box of Velveeta Mac and Cheese and drink the rest of my Grandma Utz chip bag (really I'm just salty that I finished both today. hint hint mom!)

Someday I hope to go back to Paris, France because after Italy, it is probably my favorite place I've been to in Europe. Everyone was so beautiful and I felt like they all lived the cutest lives in little cafe's eating croissants and drinking espresso. Now I may change my mind after I go to Germany and hopefully Ireland within the next few weeks but for now, La France a mon coeur! (I used google translator and that means "France has my heart" lolol I'm not that smart). Au revoir!

St Patricks Day in London

For some strange reason, ever since college St Pattys Day has been one of my favorite holidays. I am 0% Irish but something about dressing in festive green wear and drinking beer just sounds perfect to me. It's fun to have something to celebrate, ya know? 

We pregamed in the 5th floor flat and acted like we were back at Temple with games of beer pong and flip cup. Who doesn't love a good day drink? We left for our first bar, which was the college bar called Imperial. It's very cheap there so that's where we decided to start. Funny story actually….

I ordered a beer, which was a few pounds and I gave the bartender a £20. He only gave me about £6 back when I knew I should be getting even £10 more back. So I told him and he literally went into the back to look at the cameras for about 10 minutes. Is this a joooooooke. Turns out, he was wrong, which I knew, so I ended up with a free beer then. *insert salsa girl dancing emoji*

From then on, I knew it was going to be a great day. Sadly, I don't remember going from Imperial to the next bar called Porterhouse (lol) BUT I do remember a duration of time where we were there and I know I had fun. Typical day drinking…always gets me. 

There's not much to say here other than that St Pattys Day here in London made me miss Temple even more. It reminded me of waking up early, getting festive, opening up a case of Keystone (classic) and day drinking with my best friends outside allllll day. Oh nostalgia.

Jill came to town!

Take me back to toy jeeps and mac and cheese with hot dogs in it. That's what I think about when I think of my old neighbor, Jill.
Ever since we were 7 when we were running around outside together, eating cheez its and playing games, we have been in each others lives. When I learned that I was going to be studying abroad while she is studying in Spain for 10 months, I knew we had to get together some time over these four months that I'm living in Europe.
Her first night here we traveled over to Piccadilly Circus where we chowed down on Thai food and caught each other up on our lives. I can't express how comforting it was to have an old friend visiting me in London. I couldn't get it out of my head that Jill was in front of me. I never in a million years would have thought that we would be dining in London together in our 20's. Crazy!
We went to Tate Britain, where I literally had my own personal tour guide. Her knowledge on art is incredible and she actually knew what she was talking about. It was interesting to hear her perspective on certain pieces because she has such a passion for art history, which truly showed.
We walked all around London. Tralfalgar Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Shoreditch…. we walked miles. What I love about this weekend is that I don't think there was an hour where we didn't think about food. On her last night we ate Indian food, then 2 hours later we ate Cinnabon followed by potato wedges and pizza.
For as long as we have not seen each other, everything was just like it used to be. We have obviously been keeping in touch since and THANK GOD because she gives the best movie suggestions. So on that note, if you haven't watched A Single Man, Submarine or The Virgin Suicides…get on it, and they're all on Netflix. So, Jill, thanks again for a bomb weekend, having me constantly laughing and teaching me more about pieces of art than the actual artists probably know themselves.

Street Art

The reason I love Fab's class (and yes, our professors name is Fab) is because she takes us on cool excursions like taking a tour of the street art around Shoreditch, which is my favorite area in London. You know, it's all young, hip, open-minded kids, or so it seems. What I loved about this particular class is that it brought me back to being a senior in high school and basically having my only homework be art for AP. Now, I SUCKED in the beginning of senior year. Like, embarrassingly sucked (does that even make sense?) But gradually and with a LOT of practice I grew to really understand that it's not the basic colors you would think should be used or even just one medium to create a great piece of artwork. 

I'm still not the best and I am still learning and taking my time with getting better at art, but that part of my life has been on a standstill since senior year. Luckily, last year for my 20th birthday, my parents went balls to the walls and bought me an easel, a ton of canvases and plenty of paint, charcoal, drawing pencils and sketchbooks. I truly didn't even know where to start. 

Portraits are my favorite so I slowly started to look up images to try to copy them to get the feel again of drawing faces. I currently have a half painted Quabs (if you don't know who that is, shame on you. but she's my roommate) on a canvas and ever since this class I've been itching to get back to work on it. 

Our tour guide was Ben Slow, a street artist who actually made the Charlie Burns portrait pictured below. Incredible! I was automatically drawn to it. I think there is something so fascinating about portraits because even the slightest wrong mark will throw off the whole face and make it look like no one you intended it to look like. Very tough, and I am the farthest away from mastering it but one day it would be great thing to accomplish such a realistic portrait piece. 

Ben was talking about how the skyscrapers and modern buildings are taking over and it's a shame because most of these artists created masterpieces around the city for no money at all, which took intense work. It's truly sad to see these street art pieces being torn down for new buildings. He also mentioned how London is getting even more ridiculously expensive (what else is new) and these artists, who work for no money, can't afford to live in a city like that so they are moving elsewhere and street art isn't being made as frequently as it used to be now. There will be no life to the city if it keeps up with the tall, grey buildings and having prices sky rocket. A shame. 

We even got to see an artist at work, who is Ben's friend. It seemed to me like they all knew each other. They were talking about getting drinks later at the pub and they're life at that moment seemed awesome to me. You know, just painting murals on buildings and then meeting up for drinks when done. Ugh.

But anyways, just thought I'd share some cool pictures of what street art is like in London (unreal).

Barca!

I knew any location after Italy wouldn’t compare, but Spain was a close second to being a top country on my list.

It’s truly funny how small the world is. We boarded our plane from Naples, Italy to Barcelona, Spain and who is sitting next to us but fellow FIE and American students. Some were even from Lancaster! After listening in on the bonding of my friends and these girls (I was too tired to fully engage in the conversation slash was across the aisle), we were off to the country of paella and sangria.

We walked for about 10 minutes down the famous street of Las Ramblas until we reached our air bnb. When we reached our destination, no one knew what to do. The door looked like it couldn’t even be opened and it had writings and graffiti all over it. We walked in to a dark hallway with the smell of raisins and yeast filling the air. We were all scared and thought this was where we may experience Taken, it’s actually happening.

After struggling up the stairs with my two suitcases (never again, diva), we walked into the apartment and to our surprise it was actually very cool and authentic. The main wall in the living room was definitely painted by someone on acid and this place may have been a brothel years ago but hey, it is a completely different experience than what Italy was and that’s what we needed, a bit of a change for the second half of our trip (we didn’t even have Wi-Fi for god’s sake).

Like I said earlier, paella and sangria. That was our first meal in Barcelona. Oh! And tapas of course.

We ended up deciding to go to a club that was recommended to us by many, Razzmatazz. What was so different from Barcelona and London (even Italy…we didn’t even go out at night there) is that I could start getting ready for the night at 9pm in Barcelona where in London, we would already be pregaming. We wouldn’t even go out until 1am in Barcelona and get back at 5am. Definitely something different than what I have been experiencing in the past few months. It was wild.

The next night we actually ended up going to Razz again because that’s where Abroadfest was (we didn’t know) but none of us cared because we had a blast there the night before. At Abroadfest as soon as I got out of the cab I see two people I know. One from Temple, one from Penn State. AND THEN another person from Penn State I knew, I saw inside. Unreal. In Barcelona of all places. In what world does that happen so easily?

Sleepless nights and hungover days did not stop us from seeing the beautiful sights that Spain had to offer. We went in Sagrada Familia, trekked through Park Guell, and people watched on the beach. Truly a beautiful city. The sights of Sagrada Familia and Gaudi’s architecture were unbelievable and unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life. Aside from that, I am not going to lie when I say that Barcelona was actually scary sometimes.

Two people out of the 13 of us got their phone pick-pocketed and one even got her cards taken. I constantly felt like someone was going to grab me, which was not a comforting feeling. Even at 6am when we left for the airport, there was screaming on the streets like the night was just getting started. Our street was filled with people still in clothing from the night before, drunk and ready to keep on partying. Like a dork, I put my backpack in front of me and held onto my suitcase for the life of me.

Other than that though, Barcelona was beautiful and a wonderful time. Italy was definitely more of a “take it all in and appreciate” kind of trip while Barcelona was more of a “turn up” kind of trip. I really got the best of both worlds this spring break.